Dimitra Bouritsa

I had the pleasure of interviewing Athens-based painter Dimitra Bouritsa who shares about the worlds she creates in her beautiful paintings.

Je Revais de Joies Infinies, des Voluptés qui sont du ciel,
painting by Dimitra Bouritsa

Can you share a bit about your background?

 I was born in Athens, Greece in 1988, and after finishing school I studied architecture in the National Technical University for 6 years. I always felt that painting (well, art in general) was true inclination, so I made the decision to be accepted in Athens School of Fine Arts. The exams to be accepted are very old-fashioned and the way the students are chosen is very random (major problem in art education in my country this whole system..) and most people fail two or three times before they get finally accepted, usually for no specific reason (there is no portfolio examination, no interview, only an exhausting drawing and painting exam from a still life synthesis, that lasts five days). I finally got accepted (I did a one-year study of sculpture in ARBA-ESA in Brussels, before that), finished my studies, and here I am, trying to figure things out, still in Athens, in those weird days we are all living.

What ideas do you explore in your work?

Somewhere in my second year of studies, I found myself deeply moved and quite angry, about certain parts of history (well, most parts are infuriating...) and especially about Latin American history, which is deeply painted in crimson..I had been in Cuba some years ago, and it really changed me as a whole person, this wondrous place and its beautiful people. I created some portraits of Latin American women as symbols, so connected to nature, so alive and strong and carrying so much weight for centuries. This slowly evolved into something else, as women remained my main characters, but I became interested in creating paradox images that bear an irony, a hidden story, using elements of pre-Columbian civilizations and nature elements as symbols with many interpretations, for the point I needed to make. History and actuality remained as initiations but are transformed and camouflaged into something else.

The scenes I create are rather dreamy and have several layers of narration.My intention is exactly that the viewer creates his own stories and interpretations according to his imagination. The best part is to hear those stories from them, it is so interesting and this is the whole point!

What is your artistic process?

Sometimes I have a very specific idea of what I want to make (of course it never ends up exactly as I had thought, but this is the best thing about the artistic process, letting go and experimenting) sometimes I don’t. Most of the time I just go at the canvas, and just put some colors in the background, then I just sit and think what could this possibly be! It really depends on the way I am feeling at the moment, if I am angry about a specific thing that is happening in my country, or in the world, or in my family, it is more clear to me what I need to express. If I need to escape (like most of the time these past months...) I might paint a dreamy landscape, with exotic surreal creatures on it , and try to get lost in it.

I don’t really do pre-sketches. I do enjoy very much to draw or do watercolours, but this is a whole other process and state of mind for me (more meditative I could say) and most of the times elements of these drawings or aquarelles are integrated in the large scale paintings, but there are others I have not yet used. It is an evolving never-ending thing.

I usually work on one piece at a time, as they are large scale, and I have a small working space, but also I need to finish one first to go to the next. It is not the same with smaller paintings, as the one fuels the other and I can work on two or three at a time. It helps with the narrative.

La Margueritte, painting by Dimitra Bouritsa

Can you talk a bit about the evolution of your practice and your work?

As I already mentioned, it began with Latin America, but then it evolved. I wanted to make an irony about established icons, about stereotypes concerning women, their image and position, I found so much material in retro imagery of the 1950s and 1960s, it is quite outrageous how women were supposed to be in ads of this era for example. Then I turned to history of art and the way women are shown through the ages, always responding to the male gaze. I found the baroque period and its aesthetics so extravagant that it was a good fit for the almost kitsch overloaded scenes I wanted to create. I like to use surreal elements to enhance the absurdity of the scene, almost like a theatrical scenery. 

Storytelling was always the base in my work, the key and initiation to it is just that each time, the motive is different.

Which three artists do you enjoy at the moment?

First and foremost, I was deeply inspired by the Portuguese artist Paula Rego, I admire her work incredibly and I have learned very much by studying it. 

I also find extreme interest in Neo Rauch (I wish I could only have a glimpse of what is going on is his head).

For the third one I will say an artist younger than me, but very successful as I see, Ines Longevial, French. Her work is in a different direction than mine, but I like the way she works, it has something authentic and you can see it is pouring out from her, it is vigorous and real, and it seems that she really enjoys it, it is brainy but also very natural.

On me Raiillait de ma Chasteté, painting by Dimitra Bouritsa

What is the most memorable thing someone has said about your work?

Well, I remember a visiting professor once, in my second year in art school, she was saying that I have made it, I have created my own world, my own universe, my work speaks by itself and there are no words needed. It felt nice because this is what I really wanted, art does not really need an explanatory text to make us like it or even attempt to have some thoughts on it, it has to provoke this by itself. Also once a professor said about one of my paintings (knowing how much I adore Paula Rego) that I have surpassed her, but I think that was a joke (and a blaspheme :P)

What are you currently pursuing?

Things are so weird in the world right now, in the art world as well. Everything is so fluid, there are no plans. I wish I could say I am working on a programmed exhibition but I am not. As an artist I need to keep going so this is what I do, and we all hope for the sunshine to come (it sure will, hope is the only thing). And here in Greece there is plenty of it, which helps things (unlike other things, but that is another discussion, a rather political one..).

You can follow Dimitra Bouritsa on Instagram @dimitra_bouritsa.